


tête-à-tête

by fieryrondo



Category: Figure Skating RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: Experimental Style, Gen, I SPEAK QUAD, Writing Exercise, but not about quads, guest appearances from various skaters, multilingual quads, non verbal communication, possibly serious crack, quad flip, quad loop, quad lutz, quad salchow, quad talk, quad toe, s(QUAD), the language of quads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-01 13:32:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10922799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fieryrondo/pseuds/fieryrondo
Summary: "I'm new. Play with me?"For the longest time, Boyang's quadruple lutz jump was his greeting to the world- loud, bold, entreating.But no one ever answered back. No one could. Everybody was too busy mastering the language of salchows and toe loops. It was, Boyang reflected, a somewhat lonely existence.Then, one day in Spokane, Shoma Uno replied."Domo. I'll play with you."And Boyang rejoiced.





	tête-à-tête

**Author's Note:**

> Needed something lighthearted to cope. Also, I think we're long overdue for a fic ft. SQUAD, eh?
> 
> Please enjoy!
> 
> tête-à-tête, n. a private conversation between two people
> 
> 03.01.18 - Now available in [Chinese (中文)](http://hhhh2417.lofter.com/post/1f201d68_125e5ef7)! Many thanks to Merry for translating! XD

2015 Cup of China 

 

“Hi! I’m Boyang Jin! I’m eighteen years old--want to play with me?”

 

Boyang grins, delighted at the gasps his quad lutz-triple toe combination elicits from the crowd. He has spent hours and hours perfecting it--his greeting to the world. It’s his first senior Grand Prix, in front of the home crowd no less and he’s excited to see who might answer back.

 

Poor Han Yan’s quad toe manages to bravely eke out a tiny squeak of distress before splatting on the ice. But that’s okay, it’s not as if Boyang can’t talk to Han Yan off the ice.

 

It’s not until reigning world champion, Javier Fernández, smoldering Spanishness from every pore (Boyang takes notes for his tango), lands his quad salchow that Boyang gets his first reply.

 

“ _Encantado_.”

 

Boyang doesn’t understand but smiles anyway. He knows a friendly reply when he sees it. He eagerly waits for more.

 

It seems the Spanish skater, however, is done with talking. Javier goes on to land his triple lutz-triple toe combination, the triple axel as clean as a whistle to take the lead. Boyang settles back down.

 

Patience was a virtue, as his mother often told him. There would be other competitions.

 

* * *

 

2015 NHK Trophy 

 

Boyang tries again in Nagano, a bit more louder, more outgoing this time. But it’s a tough crowd. He gets a gaily _Osu!_ from Takahito Mura’s quad toe and a shy _Здравствуйтe!_ from Maxim Kovtun’s quad salchow. The quads from the other men are less chatty--Brezina mumbles, Menshov hisses and Dornbush sighs.

 

Boyang’s just about given up all hope of being understood when he hears a draw of breath, the cadence of four revolutions.

 

“I see you.” Yuzuru’s quad salchow speaks crisply, but with warmth. Boyang’s hand tighten on the boards, heart in his throat hammering away with excitement. He leans forward, almost tipping headlong into the ice.

 

“Tomorrow?”  Yuzuru’s  quad toe sings, the slightest burr of a Japanese accent.

 

“Yes.” Boyang thinks and looks forward to the free.

 

* * *

 

“What do you like?”

 

“Earphones.”

 

“Oh? I collect earphones too. How many?”

 

A sly smirk with a swish of sweeping sleeves. “More than you.”

 

Yuzuru then proceeds to crush Boyang, smashing two more world records to dust, and bringing the crowd to its feet.

 

It is easily the best conversation Boyang’s had in weeks.

* * *

 

2015 Grand Prix Final

 

Barcelona is beautiful. The ice feels good, perfect for conversation. Boyang’s so excited to be here that he doesn’t mind that the other senior skaters don’t quite understand. Patrick doesn’t seem to be listening at all, having eyes only for the parry of quad salchows going back and forth between Javier and Yuzuru, a hushed tête-à-tête that feels sharp, but somehow playful at the same time. It looks like fun, Boyang thinks but hesitates to join. The language of sal had rather romantic roots, and their exchange of salchows seems intimate somehow, like a conversation just for two. The last thing Boyang wants to do is to intrude.

 

Shoma mumbles a lot, his quad toes murmuring tentative _Sumimasens_ as he glides on the ice. Boyang wishes the Japanese skater would be a little more familiar--after all, they were hardly strangers, having met many times on the ice on the junior Grand Prix circuit. He tries to draw Shoma’s attention.

 

“Look at me! Look at me! I’m flyinnng!” A swooping quad lutz, his most perfect one yet. Boyang twirls on the ice, catching a nearby Shoma breaking into a tiny smile.

 

Javier and Yuzuru exchange looks, their eye smiles complicated and full of meaning; Boyang wonders what they could be saying. While he was getting the language of jumps down to a T, eye speech was a language he had yet to learn.

 

* * *

 

Boyang drums his fingers on the boards, lips pursed in a slight frown.

 

For the first time, Yuzuru’s quads aren’t speaking to him. Or to anyone really. In fact there are no words at all. As the Japanese skater swings his free leg back, his quad salchow bursts into song, a tremolo of joy, undulating in the air, the notes floating whisper soft as his blade touches back down on the ice. Boyang listens, watching with fascination as Yuzuru’s quad toes warble like larks at sunrise, pleasing and polished to the ear, like classical poetry.

 

Boyang watches, appreciative, but also wishing he could understand. A song without words was hard and he wasn't the best poet either.

 

* * *

 

2016 Worlds 

 

"I'm new. Play with me?"

 

For the longest time, Boyang's quadruple lutz jump was his greeting to the world- loud, bold, entreating.

 

But no one ever answered back. No one could. Not in Barcelona, not in Taipei, not even in Boston. Everybody was too busy mastering the language of salchows and toe loops. Which was all well and good, but even then no one was interested in chatting. Yuzuru's salchow no longer wanted to play, and only sang with a grief that Boyang did not understand until  weeks after. Javier's quads roared with joy, a single shout of triumph in a crowd of groans, squeaks, and sighs.

 

It was, Boyang reflected, a somewhat lonely existence.

 

Then, one day in Spokane, Shoma Uno’s quad flip replied.

 

" _Domo_. I'll play with you."

 

And Boyang rejoiced.

 

* * *

 

2016 Skate America 

 

Boyang’s so beside himself with glee to finally have a proper conversation partner that he makes a list of things to talk about for the next season. What do you like to do in your free time when you’re not skating? How long did it take for you to learn your quad flip? Do you like vegetables? Complicated questions required complicated maneuvers. His coach warns him that it would be a rocky start, but Boyang is optimistic that he’ll manage to recover his jump consistency by his first Grand Prix.

 

His coach, as usual, is right. Boyang unfashionably chokes on his quad lutz and his quad toe barely has time to stammer a quick apology before he falls on that one too.

 

“See you next time,” Shoma’s quad flip bids Boyang farewell with a wave.

 

Shoma takes gold. Boyang gets a potato. He silently vows to get in a word at the next competition.

 

* * *

 

2016 Grand Prix Final 

 

“So...what’s your program about?”

 

“A crazy woman who falls in love with crazy man. They dance and fly together.” A frown. “Apparently.”

 

“Neat. So are you the man or the woman?”

 

A glare of _piantao_. “Isn’t it obvious?”

 

His eyes glued to the laptop screen, Boyang hugs his Spiderman plush, almost squeezing its arms off as he watches the exchange of quad flips and lutzes.

 

February could hardly come soon enough, he thinks and winces when Patrick Chan falls down for the third time during his free skate. The man always did have the most expressive triple axels.

 

* * *

 

2017 Four Continents 

 

“sQuad?” Boyang asks.

 

“Yeah, that’s what they call us. Like we’re quad bros, you know? Nice ring, right?” Nathan’s lutz, much like the American, was casually laid-back, memetic and trendy.

 

“Because of our quads?”

 

“And our brimming youth. It’s a lutz and flip revolution, baby and you’ve been drafted. Shoma too.”

 

“But Shoma’s learning loop now.” Boyang confesses he’s interested too, especially since Shoma had followed his senior’s lead and now their loops were whispering conspiratorially with each other on the ice. Boyang loved secrets, especially of the quad variety.

 

Nathan’s flip smiles, sharp-edged and shark-like. Not as loco as Shoma’s, but one did see a certain predatory resemblance.

 

“We’ll lutz and flip till we die.”

 

Boyang shivers. He rethinks his strategy to add in a quad loop.

 

* * *

 

2017 Worlds 

 

“Do you like vegetables?”

 

“Vegetables can die.” Shoma’s flip hisses.

 

“Yeah, me neither.” Boyang says. “I’m thinking getting a perm.”

 

“You should. Then we’d all match.”

 

“PERM sQUAD,” Nathan’s lutz shrieks before splatting the ice.

 

Boyang likes Nathan, but sometimes he wishes the American would slow down, just a little bit. The guy’s already adding in a sixth quad in his free skate, having already conquered five. Even for Boyang, that was a bit much. Over the years, Boyang’s learned to choose his words with care.

 

* * *

 

2017 World Team Trophy 

 

“Asfdfghjkl!”

 

Boyang stares at Shoma. “What the hell was that?”

 

“I think… that was Yuzu’s quad loop.”

 

Boyang shudders.

 

* * *

 

Boyang is feeling down and in serious need of some venting. Not only had Team China been unjustly robbed of their Team Spirit award--were the spider shimmies  Boyang had poured his heart and soul into not enough? --Boyang despairs--but to add insult to injury, Nathan and Shoma’s flips spent the last two days ignoring him, deep in conversation, messaging each other privately--undoubtedly plotting dastardly plans of quad domination (he learns later that they were just planning their _yakiniku_ date, but still, it was the principle of the matter.) Boyang’s positive they didn't mean to leave him out, but it’s tough going when he’s the only one speaking lutz.

 

So Boyang sulks. Jin comforts him and Boyang is seriously considering stealing Peng’s partner so he could make his pairs debut--no quad talk perhaps but at least they’d be skating together--when his ears catch wind of some familiar stammering.

 

 _Lutz_ stammering.

 

He turns around, trying to pinpoint the source and wonders maybe if it’s Nathan trolling him or perhaps Mikhail trying to sound out the words when he sees a familiar black silhouette whiz past him and fly.

 

“Sorry, I take so long. Can you wait a little longer?”

 

A huge grin stretches across Boyang’s face before he answers Yuzuru with a quad lutz of his own.

 

“Of course. I’ve been waiting all this time, haven’t I?”

 


End file.
